@rl_dane 95-98 is PEAK Microsoft. Ignoring how often the OSes froze, or completely died - they were simply lovely. I'd love if we still used programs which were as clear, logical and nice looking as anything came with those OSes.

I never used any Win prior to 95, so I can't say anything about 3 - but it looks nice.

Make UI square again!

@mms

Win 3.x was a bit more cutesy and skeumorphic, and a bit more awkward, as they were still trying to avoid the outward appearance of outright stealing Apple's innovations.

I think they won the "look and feel" lawsuit Apple filed against them in the early 90s, and they dropped all pretense of not copying with 95.

Windows 3.1 had a program launcher that was clunky as heck, and a file manager. That was basically it.

Windows 95 and after copied the desktop metaphor of MacOS wholesale, but added the Start menu, which actually was an innovation.

It's worth trying Windows 3.x for yourself: https://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/ibmpc-win/